Earlier this summer, Great.com interviewed PeerForward about helping individuals attain their education goals through positive peer influence
Josh Rhodes from Great.com interviewed PeerForward as part of their ‘Great.com Talks With…’ podcast, a series that aims to be an antidote to negative news stories and shed light on organizations and experts whose work is making a positive impact on the world.
In many parts of the world, the quality of education is severely lacking. Even in developed countries like the US, marginalization & financial disparity hampers individuals from low-income communities to achieve post-secondary education. Without this education, these individuals may struggle to find meaningful careers. In this episode, we talk with Gary Linnen, CEO of PeerForward, about empowering individuals with positive peer influence to pursue higher education, granting them better social mobility.
“We have to be able to shift our mindsets as adults to really understand that students are the assets we need, they’re in our building – they’re just underutilized.” Gary Z. Linnen
Beating Systemic Problems
In the high school system across the US, guidance counselors are vastly outnumbered by the number of students. The national average ratio is around 436 students to 1 counselor – a staggering disparity that prevents individuals from having thoughtful conversations about how to progress their education. Only 21% of US citizens from low-income communities ever graduate from college mostly because they lack proper financing and counseling. PeerForward uses positive peer influence to solve this problem with 1-1 peer counseling, leadership skills training, and the tools they’ll need to guide their peers on a postsecondary path.
Listen to the whole interview to find out how you can help beat this systemic problem by empowering students with your time and money to strive for post-secondary education and attain it. You can also support PeerForward through a donation or become a volunteer. Changing someone’s life for the better is no small feat, but these are good first steps in the right direction
